I am new to Tiki Central (this is my first post), but have been collecting Exotica and Hawaiian vinyl and CDs (and loads of other stuff) since the early 1990s. I am not sure if this post is an appropriate use of this site - if not, I appologize (and I am sure at least one of you out there will let me know). Like many of you, I tend to travel from one fixation to another when it comes to music. My current fixation is rather narrow - the tracks "Too Much" and "Ebb Tide" off of Ohta-San's Ukulele Isle LP. This version of Ebb Tide is, in my humble opinion, one of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard (try dancing with your mate to this song on a warm summer evening on the beach somewhere and see where it leads. . .). So, my copy of this LP is VG+/NM-, but that damn Mark Riddle of Digitiki fame has hightened my audio sensitivity to unreasonably picky levels. Thus, I am looking for someone that was smarter than me and bought the Japanese CD release while it was still available. To be more specific, I am looking for someone who has this CD and is willing to rip me a high quality copy of it in exchange for a copy of something from me (I have well over a thousand, OK, likely closer to two thousand) Hawaiian and Exotica LPs. I digitally record (and clean up and divide the tracks) all of my LPs and take very high resolution professional quality photographs of the album covers. Basically, what I can deliver from my LPs can be dropped rigth into iTunes, Windows Media Player, etc. If you have this CD, feel free to send me a personal message reply with a list of LPs you are looking for and hopefully I have one of them. Mahalo! Tikitaboo2 here, Tikitaboo on Ebay since 1998

I am positive that I have more than just a few things to learn from all of you about both genres (Hawaiian and Exotica). I present myself to this group with humility and passion. That said, I am optimistic that I have something to offer (whether it is limited to hard to find music or also includes "knowledge" remains to be determined). For non-musical items, my collecting has been rather pedestrian, with really only two areas of any note - the front doors to the Seattle Trader Vic's (the second generation version of the restaurant that was located in the basement of the Westin Hotel), and seven or eight of Bosko's really early mugs (all from the first ten mugs he made). This was in the mid 1990s, all before I had kids, which when they arrived resulted in a drop off in collecting from about 2000 to 2010. My boys are hitting the teen years now, and don't want to spend as much time with me as the used to, thus more time for other passions like this one. Aloha, Mark